Proposed bipartisan Senate bill would close loopholes allowing 'foreign adversaries' to lobby

Idaho Sen. Jim Risch, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, on Tuesday signed onto a bipartisan bill aimed at closing loopholes that have allowed "foreign adversaries" to lobby in the U.S. 

The Preventing Adversary Influence, Disinformation and Obscured Foreign Financing (PAID OFF) Act was introduced by Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.). 

The bill would amend the Foreign Agents Registration Act, which Congress hasn't amended since the 1990s. 

"The law has not kept up with modern foreign adversary influence campaigns using commercial activities and registration loopholes as subterfuge to spread disinformation," according to Risch's office.

The proposed legislation would "make it easier for the U.S. government to catch these unregistered agents in the act by removing the commercial activities and [Lobby Disclosure Act] registration exemptions that make it easy for foreign agents to lobby for America’s adversaries without having to disclose that they are being paid off by a foreign adversary government," Risch's office also sad. 

The bill would cover China, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Russia and Syria.

"When foreign adversaries skirt loopholes to lobby Congress, they directly threaten our democracy," said Whitehouse. "This bipartisan amendment is long overdue and will help prevent unregistered foreign agents from putting a thumb on the scale of American policy."